Mr. Silanyo’s governing vertigo

“I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel” – Maya Angel’s

Preface:

It is now more than two decades that Somaliland, internationally unrecognized country, unilaterally declared its independence from proper Somalia. Mr. Silanyo, an ex-militia leader, assumed the presidency of the country through the ballot almost two and half years ago. However, when Mr. Silanyo was elected to the presidential office, people were filled with a sense of optimism of him as a shrewd politician to build on the achievements of his predecessors, take this fledgling country to a higher level, and knit more closely together the unity between clans. The hype for that perception was big so much so that SL people was sanguine about it, blandly ignoring the evidences of Silanyo conceit less past history and his bestial decision-making pertinent his services in both as a militia leader and a minister under Ziad Bare regime.

Against the backdrop of his service-history that is lacking an appetency, it is no surprise Mr. Silanyo as he settled in the presidential office renounced to fellow suite and, unlike his predecessors, has shaken blatantly and unabashedly the foundation that Somaliland is built on and has been nurtured by his predecessors throughout their tenures — the sense of equal belonging of all citizens to the service for their country.

In hind sight, those who voted for Mr. Silanyo weren’t thinking soberly; they were certainly charged with tribal emotions due to the overt act of kulmiye party use of the SNM card during election campaign, ostensibly to inveigle tribal votes. Despite caveats Mr. Silanyo service history raised about, the desires of his clan chauvinists and die-hard supporters to replace the then president took precedence in a society that sacred tribe as a cardinal virtue. Thus, he won the election and replaced the then President, Mr. Rayale, a man with bodacious character, vision, and strong conviction in unity, democracy, progress, and the Somaliland entity.

But in our blind defense of clannish sentiment and what it entails that seem “right” for some, we may be short-circuiting the process of thinking things through as a culture and / or the infallible citizen’s equation, leaving ourselves no way to entertain the possibility of restraint and yet restrain is uniquely human capacity. It’s the one gift no other creature possesses. Clan sentiment is a dissonant notion that could easily turn into platitudinous melee between the brotherly SL communities, jeopardize our existence as entity, and dose our hope and aspirations.

To the old adage that you only eat the fruits you reap seem to be appropriate for Somaliland people at this junction, which have kept them so far in vertigo, exacerbated by poverty, an increasingly joblessness among the youth, misappropriation of national meager resources as well as the foreign aids aimed to jumpstart projects for social development, a diminished hope for an International recognition and instead of converting SL clan diversity into richness Mr. Silanyo and his government turned into clashes and weakness.

Early Indications of his dividing policies

The policies of any government indicate the pattern of characteristics of its leader. It all became too clear to cast Mr. Silanyo hidden aspiration and vision into the open air during his first year in the office and so far it is marked with morasses incompetence, injustice, alienation of certain sectors of the population, fraternity, cynic manipulation of clan loyalty, and misappropriation of the national burse.

In a bid to repay his debt to his die-hard supporters and financiers, Mr. Silanyo has allocated ministerial portfolios for them and certainly, in a fit of pique, omitted those individuals, no matter how qualified they are, who are from the regions he did not garner many votes for his election. In that, his boorish behavior has spawned the formation of a “Sub clan-Nanny-Government,” that aimed only to cater certain peers on the expense of all other citizens without any regard to the office and the responsibilities that is bestowed upon – protection of the alienable rights of every citizen, good care taking and equal treatment for all. Finally and as a result, he is in thrall to cronies, a cesspool of semi-educated and clannish and sanctimonious diaspora fortune-seekers bereft of any ethical and morals and are enriching them with the tax collected from the lonely mother trying to fend her kids by selling fruits or other things out on the streets in Hargeisa, Borama, Buro, Erigavo, Berbera and in any other towns in SL under the scorching tropical heat.

To be continued—-

Part 2, which will contain analysis of internal and external policies of Mr. Silanyo government, which apparently inherited SL animosity and a diminished hope for an international recognition, respectively.